Russian President Putin ordered inquiry into allegations of major drug abuse in athletics

Who: Russian President Vladimir PutinWhat: Ordered inquiry into allegations of major drug abuse in athleticsWhen: 11 November 2015

Russian President Vladimir Putin on 11 November 2015 ordered an inquiry into allegations of major drug abuse in athletics that have left the country facing a possible Olympic ban. The president also declared that a foreign specialist could take over its discredited testing laboratory.

The inquiry was ordered in the wake of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report that said Russian athletics were plagued by systematic doping. The allegations have raised the prospect of Russia’s track and field athletes being denied participation in 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Russia was given a deadline till 13 November 2015 to come up with answers to the allegation by the athletics world governing body, International Association of Athletics Federations. With the deadline looming, Putin met sports chiefs in Sochi, the Black Sea home of the 2014 Winter Olympics.

The stakes could not be higher for Russia, which risks being excluded from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio over damning allegations of corruption and state-sponsored doping.